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PICTURING 

SCHOOL 
ACTIVITIES 


REPUBLISHED  BY  COURTESY  OF 
THE   WESTERN   JOURNAL   OF   EDUCATION 


AN  INTERESTING  RESUME  OF  MODERN  SCHOOL 
ACTIVITIES,  AS  EXEMPLIFIED  IN  THE  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS    OF    ALAMEDA    COUNTY,    CALIFORNIA 


GEORGE  W.  FRICK 

SURf'-RiNTENDEN-r-  XjF  'sCHOOLS 

;    ,  .ALAMEDA  GOUNTY 


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Picturing  School  Activities 

By  Archie  Rice 


While  directing  the  filming'  of  the  educational,  vocational,  and  recreational  activities  of 
the  country  schools  of  Alameda  county,  to  produce  four  reels  for  daily  free  exhibition  in 
the  Palace  of  Education  at  the  Panama  Exposition,  I  was  requested  to  direct  also  the  taking 
of  artistic  photographic  views  of  the  best  of  the  county's  school  buildings,  from  which 
types  might  be  selected  for  the  architectural  exhibit  in  the  Palace  of  Education. 

That  experience  in  scurrying  over  the  county  in  quest  of  live  pictorial  matter  is  not 
an  adequate  excuse,  but  it  is  a  reason  for  my  intruding  upon  pages  ordinarily  consecrated 
to  more  conventional  discussion  of  pedagogical  subjects. 

In  the  long  ago,  when  my  trousers  were  short,  I  began  school  and  lingered  briefly,  with 
my  trousers,  in  the  old  Lincoln  school  in  Oakland.  And  then  I  betook  myself  and  my 
trousers  back  into  southern  California  and  attended  a  country  school  with  almost  adult  In- 
dians, and  later  a  town  school  where  my  trousers  were  daily  dusted  with  more  than  one 
thrashing  administered  by  a  robust  teacher  who  sought  vainly  to  suppress  my  whispering 
loquacity. 

Remembering  what  Oakland  was  in  those  early  days  and  what  the  school  discipHnary 
methods  were  in  my  boyhood,  I  have  viewed  the  present  school  developments  of  Alameda 
county  with  keen  interest. 

Recently  I  went  round  to  the  Lincoln  school,  my  first  visit  there  since  the  days  when 
part  of  Oakland  east  of  Lake  Merritt  was  known  as  the  town  of  Brooklyn,  when  the  lake 
was  all  open  to  the  estuary,  when  a  dinky  horsecar  line  ran  lonesomely  out  to  Berkeley 
and  its  scattered  population  of  less  than  a  thousand  people  in  a  forlorn  pasture-land,  when 
Oakland  itself  was  a  country  town  with  a  few  horsecar  lines  and  the  squatty  old  Boggs 
Hotel  its  proudest  architectural  pile,  when  gypsy  camps  used  to  cluster  near  Lake  Merritt 
bv  the  weeping  willows  and  terrify  small  children,  because  parents  were  freshly  alarmed 
then  over  the  eastern  abduction  of  little  Charlie  Ross,  whose  disappearance  is  still  a  deep 
mystery,  although  his  wealthy  parents  spent  a  fortune  upon  the  search. 

I  found  the  Lincoln  school  grown  to  a  modern  brick  building  teeming  with  800  chil- 
dren, 250  of  them  Chinese  and  probably  the  brightest  assemblage  of  Oriental  pupils  any- 
where in  America,  children  of  wealthy  local  merchants  and  sons  of  Chinese  families  in  the 
jld  country  sent  hither  to  make  swift  development  after  a  term  or  a  year  or  so  at  the 
English  language. 

Where  I  had  had  to  fight  my  way  after  school,  for  no  reason  except  that  I  was  a  new 
boy  and  a  little  country  jake  and  because  after-school  fights  were  the  custom  of  the  times, 
I  have  found  modern  Alameda  county  no  longer  running  to  fist  fights.  Primitive  brutal- 
ity has  passed  as  a  school  habit  in  California. 

\\'hen  I  went  to  school  with  big  Indians  our  chief  game  was  a  war  of  stones  and 
clods  from  behind  the  doubtful  shelter  of  improvised  brush  forts  set  up  at  close  range.  We 
ran  out  to  the  edge  to  peg  the  enemy  as  he  emerged  for  more  ammunition  or  for  a  shot  at 
us.  And  we  got  plentifully  bruised.  Because  I  was  little  and  awkward  I  got  mine  early 
and  often,  until  my  father,  as  head  of  the  school  board,  abolished  that  form  of  innocent 
amusement  and  exercise.  But  I  still  have  scalp  scars  as  evidence  of  my  participation  in 
"Indian  wars."  The  biggest  scar  was  inflicted  by  the  biggest  Indian  girl.  She  playfully 
slammed  me  off  the  porch  rail,  and  I  landed  crown  down  upon  a  conical  rock  that  was 
firmly  established  ten  feet  below  and  there  to  make  an  impression.  When  they  got  me 
inside  and  the  blood  mopped  off  the  children  were  delighted,  not  because  I  was  still  alive, 
but  because  school  was  dismissed. 

During  the  recent  tour  of  Alameda  county,  we  filmed  activities  and  scenes  at  nineteen 
schools,  selecting  those  that  had  the  features  that  would  best  make  up  the  story  of  what 
these  schools  are  doing  in  the  newer  fields  of  vocational  training  and  in  the  more  modern 
methods  of  diversified  yard  games  and  athletic  pastimes. 


Alvisu  School — $4,600  building,   3  V2    acre  grounds,  55   pupils,   2   teachers — showing  old   school   at   right. 

Prior  to  eight  years  ago,  when  the  present  county  superintendent,  George  W.  Frick, 
came  into  office  for  what  has  developed  into  a  third  consecutive  four-year  term,  there  was 
not  a  domestic  science  course,  a  manual  training  shop  or  any  school  gardening  in  the  coun- 
ty's schools.  Those  features  have  heen  added  during  his  regime,  and  of  those  innovations 
the  movie-reels  have  made  record. 

Of  the  still  photographs  taken  for  the  architectural-prize  contest  among  California's 
schools,  there  are  half-tone  reproductions  illustrating  these  pages.  The  hope  was  to  qual- 
ify with  perhaps  two,  possibly  three.  Eight  were  finally  admitted :  both  Piedmont  schools, 
San  Leandro,  Hayward  Union  High  School,  Alviso,  Centerville,  a  small  one-room  school 
just  east  of  Niles,  and  Mission  San  Jose. 

Pictorially,  the  story  of  the  county's  school  activities  will  play  on  the  screen  in  approx- 
imately this  geographical  sequence  with  the  time  allotment  roughly  indicated:  Albany. 
150  seconds;  Emeryville,  90  seconds;  Piedmont's  Bonita-avenue  school,  250  seconds;  Pied- 
mont's Lake-avenue  school,   150   seconds;   San    Leandro,    420    seconds;    Hayward    Union 


Hiui    Leandro    School — .$70,000    building,    2  V^     acre    grounds,    620    pupils    (including    18    nationalities),    li 
conununity   of   4,400    people   in  famous   cherry  orchard  district,  with  big  cannery. 


teachers,    in 


High  School,  180  seconds ;  Hayward  Grammar  School,  240  seconds ;  Castro  Valley,  100  sec- 
onds ;  Valle  Vista,  45  seconds ;  Decoto,  180  seconds ;  Alvarado,  160  seconds ;  Alviso,  90 
seconds ;  Washington  Union  High  School,  250  seconds ;  Centerville  Grammar  School,  120 
seconds ;  Niles,  150  seconds ;  Mission  San  Jose,  360  seconds ;  Pleasanton,  250  seconds ;  Liv- 
ermore  Union  High  School,  190  seconds;  Alay  School,  45  seconds.  The  total  will  be  just 
one  hour. 

The  range  for  these  moving  pictures  is  from  the  eastern  shore  of  San  Francisco  Bay 
back  seventy  miles  into  the  interior,  with  schools  and  scenic  effects  selected  for  their  value 
in  completing  the  composite  picture.  Chapters  in  a  book  are  roughly  of  equal  length,  but 
they  are  not  of  uniform  value.  Some  little  incidents  necessary  to  the  whole  story  may  be 
quite  brief.  That  is  why  the  schools  get  varying  time  on  the  screen.  In  many  of  the  smaller 
places  it  cost  more  in  time  and  travel  to  get  fifty  seconds  of  action  than  it  did  at  other  places 
to  get  three  hundred. 

Those  of  you  who  do  not  visualize  the  geographical  lay  of  Alameda  county  may  better 
understand  the  district  by  a  simple  illustration. 

Open  your  right  hand.     Keep  the  fingers  and  the  thumb  close  together.     Now  lay  that 


May  School — typical  oiie-roum,   oue-teaclier  school,   2 1/2    acre  grounds,   cypress  trees,  in  flat  farming  country  seven  miles 

eastward   o    Livermore. 


hand  palm  down  on  the  table  before  you,  the  thumb  toward  you  and  the  fingers  pointing 
to  the  left. 

Now  part  the  index  finger  slightly  from  the  middle  finger,  keeping  all  the  other  digits 
in  flat  contact. 

Your  index  finger  and  thumb  together  form  the  San  Francisco  peninsula.  The  index 
finger-nail  is  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  touching  at  its  tip  the  Golden  Gate  and  flanked  on 
your  side  by  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  narrow  open  space  between  your  index  finger  and  your  middle  finger  is  the  lower 
arm  of  San  Francisco  Bay. 

All  the  rest  of  your  hand,  from  fingertips  back  to  wrist-bone,  is  Alameda  county.  The 
finger-tips  and  the  outside  edge  of  your  hand  are  the  county's  boundary  limits  touching 
Contra  Costa  covmty. 

The  nail  and  back  to  the  first  joint  of  your  finger  is  the  bay-shore  urban  district  of 
Berkeley,  Oakland,  and  Alameda.  That  comparatively  small  area  has  a  city  population  of 
approximately  300,000. 


All  the  rest  of  your  hand,  back  to  and  over  the  knuckles  and  on  the  the  wrist,  is  the 
suburban   and  rural   part  of  Alameda  county,  with  60,000  people. 

From  the  tip  of  your  big'  finger  back  to  the  wrist-bone  is  nearly  seventy  miles.  And 
along"  that  rang"e  of  territory  the  movie-record  will  take  the  spectator  during"  an  hour's  run 
on  the  screen. 

From  the  first  joint  of  your  n"iiddle  finger  back  to  the  base  of  it  are  in  sequence  the 
towns  of  San  Leandro,  San  Lorenzo.  Hayward,  Alvarado,  Decoto,  Centerville,  Niles,  Mis- 
sion San  Jose.  The  big  knuckle  is  Mission  Peak,  a  landmark  on  the  low  range  that  sepa- 
rates the  bay-shore  valleys  from  those  out  in  the  back  country.  Over  in  that  valley  next 
to  your  little  finger  and  along  back  toward  the  wrist  are  Pleasanton  and  Livermore,  and 
their  surroimding  regions  of  vineyards  and  grain-fields.  Most  of  the  rest  of  the  county 
area  is  mountainous  and  deeply  sculptured  with  outfiow  creeks  that  drain  down  through 
regions  as  yet  sparcely  settled. 

Perhaps  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  county's  area  is  outside  the  three  almost  coalescing 
cities,  and  yet  those  three  cities  have  practically  five  times  as  many  people  and  pupils  as 
all  the  rural  area  combined.     Outside  of  these  three  cities  are  just  fifty  public  school  build- 


Valle  \'ista   School — on   state  highway  between   Ilayward  and   Niles,    2    acre    grounds — There    are    24    of   these    one-room, 

one-teacher  schools  in    Alameda    County. 


ings,  including  three  that  are  union  high  sc'nools. 

Oakland  alone  has  forty-seven  main  school  buildings.  Nineteen  of  them  are  new  and 
modern  structures  erected  with  four  city  bond  issues,  approximating  nearly  $4,000,000, 
voted  during  the  past  decade  l)y  the  citizenry  for  new  schools  and  augmented  play- 
grounds. 

A  commission  of  experts,  sitting  twice  a  week  for  two  months  and  without  pay,  was 
secured  by  the  Oakland  Board  of  Education  three  years  ago  to  plan  a  general  scheme  of 
buildings  and  then  recommend  a  supervising  architect  who  would  confer,  with  various 
California  architects  and  finally  direct  the  completion  of  the  plans. 

The  new  buildings  have  been  constructed  with  a  view  to  possible  future  enlargement 
from  original  architectural  units,  so  that  any  or  all  may  be  added  to  without  marring  the 
harmony  of  the  design. 

Playground  areas  have  been  generously  provided  for  present  and  for  future  needs. 
Most  of  the  downtown  schools  occupy  a  city  block  or  more.  Some  of  the  newer  build- 
ings have  even   larger  areas.     The   Lockwood  school  is  upon  a  tract  of  eighteen  acres,  or 

6 


about  five  city  blocks.  Tbe  remarkable  new  technical  high  school,  which  cost  more  than 
half  a  million  dollars  and  has  seventy  teachers  and  fifteen  hundred  pupils,  stands  wide- 
spread and  low  and  imposingly  on  an  area  of  eight  acres,  which  is  more  than  two  whole 
blocks  in  an  average  city.  5 

In  the  new  buildings  simplex  windows  are  used,  so  that  by  tilting  them  at  the  medial 
horizontal  axis  each  room  may  be  quickly  converted  into  practically  an  open-air  auditor- 
ium. 

Assembly  hall,  stereopticon-room,  neighloorhood  clubroom.  library,  kindergarten, 
nurse's  room  with  bath,  toilet  rooms,  teachers'  rest  room,  teachers'  lunch  room,  pupils' 
lunch  room,  boiler  and  fan  rooms,  with  adjustable  ventilation  and  automatically  regulated 
temperature  for  each  class  room — such  are  the  common  innovations  in  most  of  the  new 
buildings.  In  all  the  new  buildings  there  are  domestic  science  rooms  and  manual  training- 
rooms. 

But  it  is  onlv  of  the  outside  districts  that  this  article  has  to  deal,  onlv  with  those  schools 
that  were  either  filmed  or  photographed,  or  both.  Most  visitors  are  somewhat  familiar 
with  the  appearances  and  customs  of  the  larger  city  schools.     But  very  few  have  oppor- 


Centerville    School — $18,000    building,    3    acre    grounds,    pine  trees.   207  pupils,    6  teachers,   in  small  town  center  of  rich 

agricultural    valley. 


tunity  for  a  general  survey  of  the  remoter  places.  Some  of  the  newer  schools  are  so  new 
that  their  pictures  will  now  appear  as  novelties  even  to  old  residents  who  are  familiar  with 
much  of  the  county's  area. 

For  those  of  you  who  do  not  know  much  of  the  technique  of  the  movie  game  it  may 
be  pertinent  to  explain  that  there  are  sixteen  snapshot  pictures  to  the  second,  and  those 
sixteen  pictures  make  one  foot  of  reel.  Each  little  picture  is  no  larger  than  a  postage 
stamp,  and  it  must  be  clear  and  perfect  in  order  to  permit  the  gigantic  enlargment  that  it 
gets  when  intense  rays  of  light  are  sent  through  it  and  focused  on  a  dense  white  screen. 
By  the  uniform  rapidity  of  projecting  the  little  pictures,  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  a  second, 
the  eye  is  deceived  into  seeing  what  appears  as  a  continuously  moving  picture,  whereas 
there   are   actual   little   cut-olT   pauses   between  the  pictures. 

When  the  pictures  are  taken  more  slowly,  say  eight  a  second,  and  then  are  given  the 
standard  projecting  speed  of  sixteen  a  second,  movement  is  greatly  accelerated,  and  auto- 
mobiles and  humans  can  be  made  to  do  wonderful  hustling  over  the  landscape. 

But  no  tricks  are  attempted  with  Alameda  school  children,  except  that  slow  speed  was 
used  in  an  insufficiently  illuminated  assembly  room  at  Hay  ward.  The  resulting  projec- 
tion of  that  picture  makes  some  of  the  study-hall   students   do   little   quick,    nervous   move- 


Hayward  Union   High   School — $65,000   Imilding   on    great    13    acre   athletic  field  grounds  that   cost   $15',000,    156   pupils, 

8   teachers   in   a   community  of  4,400  people. 

ments  like  children  that  have   had  buckwheat  cakes  for  breakfast  and  are  wearing  heavy 
flannels  in  warm  weather. 

On  a  grassy  level  space  behind  the  Hayward  Union  High  School  we  assembled  nearly 
nine  luindred  grammar  school  pupils  and  filmed  them  from  the  roof  top,  shooting  down 
into  a  wildly  animated  HAYWARD  formed  of  what  looked  like  a  juvenile  army  when  it 
came  there  in  long  procession  from  the  most  populous  country  school  in  the  county. 

What  of  the  personal  products  of  the  schools  of  the  hinterland  outside  of  the  east-bay 
cities? 

Do  you  recall  the  name  William  A.  Langdon,  district  attorney  of  San  Francisco,  dur- 
ing the  prosecution  of  the  notorious  graft  cases  after  the  great  fire?  He  was  the  first  pres- 
ident of  California's  newlv  organized  State  Board  of  Education.     For  years  before  his  en- 


Pleasanton   School — $35,000  building,   2Vz    acre  grounds,   eucalyptus  trees,  331  pupils   (including  two  lower  high  school 
iilasscs),   n   teachers,  in  community  of  3,300  people,  with  noted  race-course,  horse  farm,   and  county's  agricultural  fair 

buildings    off    in  front    of    school. 

8 


try  into  the  legal  profession  he  was  principal  of  the  grammar  school  at  San  Leandro. 

Percy  Long,  now  and  for  several  elective  terms,  city  attorney  of  San  Francisco,  is  a 
graduate  of  the  Hayward  grammar  school. 

Doctor  Daniel  Crosby  of  Oakland  graduated  from  the  Centerville  grammar  school  and 
afterward  taught  school ;  and  his  brother,  Peter  Crosby,  an  Oakland  lawyer,  went  through 
that   same   scholastic  and  pedagogical  training. 

Superior  Judge  W.  H.  Donahue  of  Alameda  county,  graduated  from  one  of  the 
county's  schools,  later  taught  school,  and  was  district  attorney. 

Louis  Decoto,  a  South  African  mining  engineer  and  graduate  of  the  University  of 
California,  and  his  brother,  Ezra  Decoto,  now  assistant  district  attorney  of  Alameda 
county  and  a  well-known  alumnus  of  the  the  University  of  California,  are  brothers  who 
received  their  grammar-school  training  at  Decoto,  a  town  named  after  their  father. 

The  late  James  Whipple,  University  of  California  football  captain,  and  Alaskan  mining 
engineer,   was   a  graduate  of  the   Washington  L^nion  High  School  at  Centerville. 

Paul  Downing,  one  of  the  foremost  hydro-electric  engineers  in  the  world,  and  his 
brother,  Claude  Downing,  a  banker  of  Berkeley,  got  their  pre-college  schooling  in  Pleasan- 
ton.  Then  they  entered  Stanford  with  its  pioneer  class,  Paul  playing  on  the  varsity  nine 
and  four  years  on  the  varsity  football  team  in  four  different  positions,  and  the  last  year  as 


Ward    School — one-teacher    school    in    orchards,    mile    eastward    of    Xiles,    1    acre    grounds,    English 

front    avenue. 


walnut    trees    along 


victorious  captain,  and  Claud  playing  on  the  first  football  team  and  on  the  first  varsity 
baseball  team. 

J.  W.  McClymonds,  who  was  city  superintendent  of  schools  in  Oakland  for  twenty- 
four  years,  was,  prior  to  that  service,  principal  for  seven  years  of  the  San  Leandro  school 
and  was  followed  there  by  George  W.  Frick,  now  county  superintendent  of  schools.  San 
Leandro  proved  the  stepping-stone  by  which  McClymonds  moved  up  to  the  city  superin- 
tendency  in  Oakland,  by  which  Frick  advanced  to  the  county  superintendency,  by  which 
William  H.  Langdon  went  to  the  district  attorneyship  of  San  Francisco. 

Other  educational  leaders  in  the  back  country  have  moved  up  into  city  positions :  C.  F. 
Gulick,  principal  of  Oakland's  Lafayette  school,  came  from  Hayward  grammar  school ;  and 
so  did  William  Greenwell,  principal  of  the  Lincoln  school  in  Oakland ;  and  H.  C.  Petry  of 
the  Grant  school  in  Oakland.  George  Edgar,  principal  of  the  Franklin  school  in  Oakland, 
moved  in  from  Niles.  W.  D.  Spencer,  principal  of  the  Fruitvale  school,  moved  cityward 
after  experience  gained  at  Mount  Eden ;  and  Frank  M.  Carr,  assistant  county  superinten- 
dent of  schools,  came  on  into  the  Oakland  headquarters  ofifice  eight  years  ago  from  ex- 
perience at  Mount  Eden. 

P.   M.   Fisher,  principal  of  the  great  new  technical  high  school,  was  county  superin- 


9 


Xili's   School — $20,000   liuilding:,   2 1/^    acre   grounds,   220  pupils,    6   teachers,    surrounded   by   apricot    orchards    and   facing 
picturesque   hill,    with   moving-picture   plant    of    Essanay    Company    100    yards    away. 

tendent  of  schools  and  way  back  in  1ST 9  taught  in  the  httle  country  school  at  Sheridan. 

They  develop  themselves  out  in  that  back  country,  and  then  come  on  into  the  big 
cities  to  greater  leadership. 

Unless  you  can  conjure  memory  to  come  and  sit  beside  you  and  repicture  some  of 
the  early  scenes  of  Alameda  county  and  its  communities  as  they  were  you  can  little  realize 
how  great  has  been  the  growth  and  development  of  that  section  stretching  back  from  the 
east  shore  of  San  Francisco  bay. 

Twenty-four  years  ago  when  Stanford  University  first  opened  and  559  of  us  went  there 
as  strangers  to  a  new  institution  and  to  one  another,  the  town  of  Berkeley  was  not  so  large 
as   Hayward   is   today,   and   the   University   of  California,  although  then  more  than  twenty 


:r 


'^.~'::<^ 


i 


Hayward   Grammar  School — 2  Vi    acre  grounds,   date  palm   trees,    800  pupils,    19   teachers,    in   community  of  4,400  people 
in    orchard    section,    with    large    fruit   packing    industr.v — Principal    of    this    school    is    highest    paid    of    county's    country 

teachers,   $2,700  a   year. 


10 


years  old.  had  only  about  450  students.  Today  Berkeley  is  a  beautiful  residential  com- 
munity of  56,000  people — some  claim  G5.00()  And  the  I'niversity  of  California  numbers 
about  G.OOO  students.  What  has  happened  to  Berkeley  in  amazing  growth  of  population 
and  educational  development  is  typical  of  all  Alameda  county,  which  stands  today  second 
only  to  Lo^  Angeles  as  the  foremost  educational  county  among  the  fifty-eight  in  Cali- 
fornia. 

New  buildings,  better  facilities,  larger  grounds,  more  instruction  for  practical  useful- 
ness in  life,  improved  methods,  greater  diversity  of  interests  to  arouse  the  juvenile  mintl 
that  is  groping  for  something  that  makes  close  appeal,  more  sanitation,  raised  standards 
of  scholarship  and  of  teaching  indicate  the  trend  of  the  evolution  of  this  people. 

Wider  participation  in  playground  games  by  both  sexes,  a  gently  developing  under- 
standing of  the  ethics  of  good  sportsmanship  that  scorns  to  cheat  and  does  not  brawl  or 
seek  to  mob  the  umpire,  that  is  ashamed  of  the  mucker  in  its  midst — these  are  some  of  the 
tendencies  that  are  making  for  a  better  citizenry  than  the  old  conditions  would  naturally 
produce.  [ 


Liveimore   Caioii  Higli   School — grounds  entire  city  block,   pepper  anJ  locust   trees,   92  pupils,    6   teachers,   in  community 
of   3,850   people — Oldest    of   county's   union   high    school   districts — near    town    one    of    largest    fuse    factories    in    America 

and  in   town   two   well   known  nerve    and   drink    sanatoriums. 


At  Albany,  where  23  per  cent  of  the  population  are  school  children — the  county  aver- 
age being  about  12.5  per  cent — we  filmed  big  girls  coming  in  rapid  procession  over  a  run- 
ning high  jump.  At  Emeryville  a  buxom  girl  daringly  slid  down  the  toboggan,  standing 
up.  At  Decoto  and  at  San  Leandro  the  movie  camera  got  girls  swatting  the  ball  man- 
fashion  and  lining  it  out. 

A  new  era  has  arrived  when  girls  can  do  these  things,  and  play  tennis  and  do  grace- 
producing  folk  dances  as  part  of  the  physical  freedom  of  their  school  development. 

At  Emeryville,  at  Decoto,  at  Mission  San  Jose,  and  way  out  at  the  little  j\Iay  school 
we  filmed  children  working  in  their  school  gardens. 

At  Hayward  and  at  Centerville  we  put  domestic  science  and  cookery  into  the  movie 
record.     And  at  Alvarado  and  Mission  San  Jose    and    Livermore    sewing   and    embroidery 


and  dressmaking-. 


11 


At  Piedmont  and  San  Leandro  and  Alvarado  and  Centerville  boys  were  shown  doing- 
practical  carpentry. 

At  Pleasanto'n  Mrs.  Phoebe  Hearst  welcomed  some  thirty  note-taking  pupils  to  her 
famous  hacienda  on  the  hillside  of  her  valley-viewing  country  estate,  and  there  they  were 
filmed  in  scenes,  in  some  of  which  the  hostess  herself  appeared,  she  of  western  philan- 
thropy and  for  nearly  a  score  of  years  now  the  one  woman  member  of  the  board  of  re- 
gents of  the  University  of  California. 

Thus  to  portray  public  schools  as  a  movies  theme  is  somewhat  of  a  novelty.  And  to 
Alameda  county,  under  George  W.  Prick's  superintendency,  perhaps  belongs  the  credit  of 
adapting  this  method  of  driving  home  the  story  so  that  spectators  at  the  two  great  Cali- 
fornia expositions  may  learn  of  it  and  so  that  also  the  National  Education  Association  may 
view  it  during  the  national  convention  of  educators  in  August. 

To  direct  professional  or  paid  actors  for  movie  action  is  a  simple  matter  of  issuing 
explicit  orders  and  having  them  obeyed  constructively.  But  to  work  with  hundreds  ot 
exuberant  or  only  partially  attentive  children,  some  of  whom  are  inclined  to  pose  rigidly 
and  self-consciously,  is  a  different  ]>rohlem. 


Piedmont's    Lake    Avenue    School 


-$28,000    building,    3    acre    grounds,    150    pupils,    5    teachers,    in    hillside    home    com- 
munity   of   2,375    people. 


For  instance,  preparation  of  the  children  of  the  Piedmont  school  for  the  cover  de- 
sign, "A  California  Tower  of  Jewels,"  was  no  small  task.  I  went  to  that  school 
at  8 :30  in  the  morning,  consulted  with  the  four  men  who  were  about  to  construct 
the  necessary  scaffolding,  telling  them  what  I  had  in  mind.  At  2  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  I  was  back  with  a  still-life  photographer,  for  then  the  structure  was  ready.  By 
2  :30  o'clock  I  began  arranging  the  300  children,  the  littlest  first  and  down  in  front.  But 
little  folk  wiggle  and  tire,  and  even  these  charming  Piedmont  children  would  not  all  stay 
])ut.  By  4  o'clock  the  thing  was  ready,  and  the  photographer  made  three  rapid  exposures. 
The  preparations  took  an  hour  and  a  half  for  that  grouping,  working  rapidly,  but  the 
actual  picture  was  made  in  two-fifths  of  a  second.  I  had  to  be  careful  and  sure  that  no 
accident  might  mar  the  occasion. 

Some  twenty  years  at  newspaper  and  magazine  writing,  with  an  eye  ever  alert  for 
the  strange  and  the  picturesque  and  the  beautiful,  and  a  personal  experience  at  talking  be- 
fore nearly  a  hundred  school,  college,  and  convent  audiences  in  California  are  back  of  the 
assertion  I  now  make :  That  Piedmont  group  is  uniformly  the  finest  looking  lot  of  child- 
ren I  have  ever  seen  together  anywhere.  Particularly  were  there  lovely  little  girls,  and  as 
sweet  as  they  were  good  to  look  upon. 

]2 


Piedmont  is  a  hillside  paradise  of  beautiful  homes,  made  lovely  with  gardens  and  set 
for  a  commanding-  view  down  over  Oakland  and  toward  the  Golden  Gate  and  the  fire- 
christened  city  off  over  there  that  is  piled  and  ranked  upon  its  forty  hills,  the  least  of 
which  is  higher  than  any  hill  in  Rome  or  Athens. 

They  told  me  that  the  supervising  principal  of  those  two  Piedmont  schools  is  the  high- 
est paid  woman  teacher  in  the  county  sc1k)o1s.  She  is  Miss  Clara  Crumpton,  and  the  pay 
is  $1,800  a  year. 

The  highest  paid  man  teacher  in  the  outer  districts  is  the  principal  of  the  Hayward 
grammar  school.  He  is  E.  N.  Mabrey,  a  Stanford  graduate  of  a  dozen  years  agone,  and 
his  pay  is  $2,700  a  year.  Under  his  leadership  that  school  has  assembled  a  worthy  col- 
lection of  180  large  framed  pictures  and  200  varieties  of  stuffed  birds.  The  Hayward 
grammar  school  is  a  model  of  organization  and  thorough  preparation.  It  is  organized  on 
the  departmental  plan.  i 

The  average  yearly  salaries  throughout  the  county  are :  Men  teachers,  in  high  school 
work,  $1,753.40,  in  grammar  school  work,  $1,583.90  ;  women  teachers,  in  high  schools,  $1,- 
394.35.  in  grammar   schools,  $1,082.19.     These  figures  imply  ten  months  of  actual  instruc- 


Centerville's    Washington    Union    High    School — 6    acre    grounds    with     athletic    fields,     English    walnut    trees,     olives, 

oranges,  palms,   117  pupils,    7    teachers. 

tion  each  year,  which  makes  the  monthly  salary  really  one-tenth  of  the  figures  given;  and 
that  is  a  high  average,  measured  against  teachers'  pay  elsewhere. 

The  three  union  high  school  principals,  far  from  the  big  cities,  get  these  salaries :  At 
Hayward  and   Centerville,  $2,225   a  year,   and  at  Livermore,  $2,000  a  year. 

There  are  twenty-four  one-teacher  schools  out  in  the  country  districts,  and  their 
teachers  are  paid  between  $60  and  $110  a  month.  Only  three  teachers  receive  so  little  as 
$60  a  month.  Five  get  $70.  Three  get  $75.  Six  get  $80.  Two  get  $90.  One  gets 
$100.  One  gets  $110  a  month.  But  where  they  teach  their  cost  of  board  and  lodging 
is  less  than  in  the  towns  and  incidental  living  expenses  are  relatively  small.  A  major 
part  of  the  salary  can  be  saved. 

It  is  not  the  bigness  of  your  salary  that  signifies  good  pay,  but  the  possible  net  sur- 
plus that  can  be  saved  each  month,  after  deducting  the  necessary  expenses  of  living  the 
expected  part  in  your  chosen  environment. 

13 


«asBS3aK.£u^3K^MB«B2- 


Piedmont's   Bonita    Avenue    School — $32,000    building,    2    acre   grounds,   cypress  trees,   260   pupils,   12   teachers,   in  beau- 
tiful  residential   community  of  2,375  people. 

After  the  one-teacher  schools  there  are  five  with  two  teachers,  four  with  three,  two 
with  four,  one  with  live,  three  with  six  (Decoto,  Centerville.  Xiles),  two  with  seven  (Al- 
bany and  Emeryville),  one  with  eight  (San  Lorenzo),  one  with  nine  (Piedmont's  Bonita- 
avenue),  two  with  eleven  (Livermore  and  Pleasanton),  one  with  eighteen  (San  Leandro), 
one  with  nineteen    (Hayward). 

Livermore  and  Pleasanton,  in  the  larg-e  Livermore  A'alley  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
county,  are  schools  of  excellent  type,  the  former  under  the  able  supervision  of  D.  E.  Martin 
for  years,  and  the  latter  well  supervised  by  Wm.  C.  Waibel. 

Among  the  other  able  principals  who,  together  with  the  co-operation  of  competent 
grade  teachers,  and  the  teachers  of  the  ungraded  schools,  complete  a  system  of  unexcelled 
rural  school  work,  may  l)e  mentioned  Messrs    Lacy  of  Emeryville  :    Runckle    of    Decoto ; 


Mission   San   Jose   School — $12,000   building,    4  V^    acre   grounds,     costing    $4,000,     115    pupils,     3    teachers,     in    historic 

mission   community. 


14 


Diaz  of  Centerville :  Lazarus  of  Warm  Spring-s ;  Davies  of  Mission  San  Jose  ;  McCarty  of 
Alvarado ;  Lawson  of  San  Lorenzo;  \'oorhie  of  Niles ;  and  Bunker  of  Newark  (where  a 
fine  large  new  buildin;;!;  is  now  being  constructed). 

The  CaHfornia  public  school  plan  include  a  County  Board  of  Education,  assisting  the 
County  Superintendent  in  the  supervision  of  the  county  schools.  In  Alameda  county  the 
Board  consists  of  representative  educational  people,  and  is  composed  of  President  C.  L. 
Biedenbach,  P.  M.  Fisher,  Wm.  McDonald,  Miss  Genevieve  McKeever  and  Geo.  W.  Frick, 
county  superintendent  of  schools   (ex-ofificio). 

Throughout  Alameda  county  there  are  about  1,280  teachers  in  the  public  schools  and 
-14,5t)0  pupils,  5,573  of  them  in  the  high  schools. 

In  the  one-room  schools  the  range  of  attendance  is  from  fifty-one  down  to  as  low  as 
six  and  seven.  The  average  is  twenty-two  pupils  for  the  one-room  district  schools,  but 
there  are  six  that  have  fewer  than  a  dozen  children  in  attendance.  Way  out  on  the  east- 
ern edge  of  the  county,  where  the  great  billowing  hills  are  bare  and  uninviting  and  the 
population  is  made  up  of  isolated  farm  homes,  is  the  Mountain  House  School,  with  seven 
])upils. 


San    Lorenzo    School — in    2%    acre    grounds    in    Portugues     gardening   and   orchard  district,    295   pupils,    8    teachers. 


In  Alameda  county  high  school  attendance  averages  daily  83. .4  per  cent  of  the  total 
enrollment.  In  the  grammar  schools  the  daily  attendance  averages  78. .2  per  cent  of  the 
enrollment.  It  costs  the  county  $79.43  a  year  for  the  education  of  each  high  school  pupil 
and  $38.16  a  year  for  each  grammar  school  pupil. 

Fifty  per  cent  of  the  country  teachers  of  Alameda  county  are  graduates  of  state  nor- 
mal schools,  the  great  majority  having  been  trained  at  San  Jose,  with  San  Francisco  nor- 
mal a  fair  second.  Nineteen  per  cent  are  university  graduates,  approximately  nine-tenths 
of  them  having  been  trained  at  the  Cniversity  of  California.  Twenty  per  cent  hold  life 
diplomas  as  evidence  of  veteran  and  satisfactory  service  in  the  teaching  profession.  The 
remaining  eleven  per  cent  represent  those  high  school  graduates  or  those  of  other  special 
training  who  have  taken  the  county  examinations  and  received  certificates  in  various  parts 
of  California  or  have  been  accepted  on  similar  credentials  from  other  states.  There  are 
twenty-five  men  out  in  that  great  stretch  of  country;  twelve  widows,  and  132  unmarried 
women,  engaged  in  the  teaching  game. 

Every  year  a  great  new  crop  of  young  teachers  blossom  from  the  five  normal  schools 
of  California,  from  the  two  big"  universities  and  from  like  institutions  in  other  states. 
And  they  come  wanting"  positions,   seeking-  the  places  where  life  is  most  agreeable  and  the 


pay  good.  For  such  reasons  Alameda  county  can  command  high  qualifications  in  its 
chosen  teachers. 

Because  Alameda  county  is  so  close  to  the  western  metropolis  and  the  profits  of  its 
marts  and  commerce  and  because  it  possesses,  at  Berkeley,  the  University  of  California  it 
is  naturally  advanced  in  educational  ideas  and  in  school  equipment.  Its  people  are  close 
to  examples  of  what  good  schools  should  be,  and  the  productivity  of  the  soil  and  its 
nearness  to  a  ready  market  make   attainmen    financially  possible. 

All  able-bodied  men  are  $2-a-day  men  from  the  neck  down..  But  what  they  have  in 
intelligence,  in  mental  grasp,  what  there  is  to  them  from  the  neck  up  determines  their 
added  earning  power  in  the  world's  worth-while  work.  And  each  generation  is  coming 
more  and  more  to  realize  that  men  must  be  educated  to  keep  the  pace.  "Poor  folks 
have  poor  ways,"  and  people  that  are  poor  in  mind  and  mental  development  through 
lack  of  schooling  must  do  the  crude  work  of  the   world   and   take    its    smallest    intermittent 


wage. 


Alvarado  School — 3  acre  grounds,  fan  palm  trees  and  weeping  willows,  125  pupils,  3  teachers,  in  small  community  with 

large   beet-sugar   factory  and   Chinatown   section. 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  me  to  note  what  is  being  done  at  San  Leandro.  There  is  a 
great  school  of  620  day  ]nipils  and  between  60  and  120  day-working  night  pupils,  vary- 
ing with  the  season  and  the  chances  for  work.  Eighteen  different  nationalities  are  repre- 
sented in  that  school  community  of  young  citizens  in  the  making. 

That  school  has  a  large  band  that  plays  when  school  begins  in  the  morning  and  again 
at  noon.  It  has  an  efficient  orchestra  of  girls  and  boys  who  play  for  the  exodus  at  recess 
time.  It  has  a  school  savings  bank,  in  which  the  aggregate  of  little  deposits  the  day  of 
my  visit  was  something  more  than  sixteen  dollars.  It  has  an  employment  bureau,  which 
then  had  more  than  forty  prospective  jobs  listed  for  the  boys  of  the  school.  It  has  an 
emergency  hospital  conducted  by  the  pupils ;  woodworking  shop  and  manual  training ;  do- 
mestic science,  cooking  and  sewing;  folk  dancing  for  the  development  of  feminine  grace- 
fulness ;  general  debating  in  which  scores  participate.  It  has  an  annual  flower  show  of 
California  wild  blossoms.     We  filmed  that,  too.     There  were  444  varieties  from  thirteen 


16 


counties,  and  scores  of  visitors  came  from  afar  to  view  the  exhibition.  It  has  an  annual 
exhibit  of  all  the  things  that  the  pupils  have  made  or  grown  or  developed  at  their  homes 
— carpentry,   needlework,   pets  of  many  kinds,  flowers  and  vegetables. 

And  it  is  only  a  grammar  school  and  a  sort  of  miniature  melting  pot  of  the  various 
races,  smelting  out  the  metals  that  shall  make  substantial  citizens  who  can  do  useful 
things  and  be  self-reliant  in  the  processes  of  learning  how. 

Of  course,  there  must  be  some  resourceful  and  constructive  mind  back  of  it  all.  It  is 
there  behind  the  smiling,  quiet  personality  of  a  youngish,  mild-eyed  man  with  a  degree 
from  the  University  of  California.  Guy  Smith  is  the  man  that  is  doing  all  that  work  for 
constructive  citizenship  there  at  San  Leandro.  His  pay  is  $"3,000  a  year.  I  would  guess 
that  such  influence  is  worth  five  times  that  to  the  community,  because  every  one  has  some- 
thing to  do,  to  interest  him  or  her,  and  even  the  recess  periods  are  filled  with  such  di- 
versified recreation  that  no  children  stand  about  moping  or  half  dormant. 

Remember  what  happened  to  jMcClymonds  and  Frick  and  Langdon,  who  held  the  prin- 
cipalship  at  San  Leandro.  They  came  up.  And  Guy  Smith  is  a  man  that  has  yeast  in  his 
cosmos,  and  quiet  energy  to  help  raise  the  youth  of  the  community  with  him. 

Thus  far  onlv  twelve  of  the  fiftv-eight  counties  of  California  have  kindergarten  de- 
partments  in  their  public-school  systems,  and  Alameda  county  is  one  of  the  twelve.  The 
others  are  Fresno,  Los  Angeles,  Orange,  Riverside,  Sacramento,  San  Bernardino,  San 
Diego,  San  Francisco,  Santa  Barbara,  Tehama,  Ventura.  Seven  are  in  the  warm  south- 
land, three  in  the  great  interior  valleys,  two  on  the  edge  of  San  Francisco  Bay.  Roughly 
that  list  embodies  the  present  public-school  leadership  of  California,  as  measured  by  build- 
ings and  methods  of  teaching. 

In  the  country  schools  of  Alameda  county  there  are  5,939  pupils,  and  practically  55 
per  cent  of  them  are  boys  and  only  45  per  cent  are  girls.  There  are  541  more  boys  than 
girls  in  those  schools.  The  forty-seven  grade  schools  have  94  per  cent  of  the  pupils  and 
the  three  union  high  schools  have  6  per  cent.  But  while  the  boys  predominate  in  the 
grade  schools  in  the  ratio  of  6  to  5,  in  the  high  schools  the  girls  are  in  the  majority,  in 
the  ratio  of  nearly  5  to  4.  At  present  fifteen  of  every  200  girl  pupils  are  to  be  found  in 
high  school,  but  only  ten  boys  in  every  200.  To  express  it  concretely,  there  are  seventy 
country  boys  that  might  be  in  high  school,  but  are  not.  Why?  To  answer  that  is  to 
solve  part  of  the  problems  of  ofifering  interesting  training  for  direct  practical  usefulness  in 
life. 


The  Schools  of  Oakland 


From  the  standpoint  of  educational  opportunity,  Oakland  is  very  fortunately  situated. 
The  city  contains  many  churches  and  private  schools  of  recognized  merit,  of  both  prepar- 
atory and  college  grade,  and  Mills  College,  the  most  widely  known  institution  in  the  West, 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  higher  education  of  young  women.  It  is  within  a  few  minutes' 
ride  from  the  University  of  California,  the  largest  and  one  of  the  best  equipped  State  uni- 
versities in  the  United  States,  and  but  a  short  distance  by  rail  from  Stanford  university. 

Proximity  to  these  institutions  has  insured  a  high  standard  of  excellence  in  the  Oak- 
land public  schools.  Not  only  is  the  scholarship  of  Oakland  pupils  attested  by  the  records 
issued  annually  in  the  reports  of  the  examiners  of  schools  to  the  president  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  California,  but  in  many  offices,  business  houses,  and  shops,  their  efficiency  has  been 
tested. 

The  liberal  spirit  of  the  people  of  Oakland  is  fundamentally  responsible  for  the  school 
system  which  has  been  developed.  Not  only  has  the  community  sanctioned  every  pro- 
gressive educational  step  for  years  past,  but  with  noteworthy  civic  pride  it  has  voted  bonds 
for  the  erection  of  buildings  and  the  purchase  of  grounds  until  the  district  has  acquired 
sufficient  property  in  the  crowded  portions  of  the  city  to  insure  playgrounds  and  school 
sites  for  the  future. 

During  the  past  ten  years,  nineteen  complete  new  and  modern  schools  and  extended 
additions  to  sites  and  grounds  have  been  provided.  The  cost  of  these  buildings  and  the 
sites  on  which  they  are  located  have  been  met  for  the  most  part  by  the  following  bonds 
issued:  In  1904,  $960,000;  in  1906,  $280,000;  in  1911,  $2,493,900;  in  1914,  $210,000. 
This  means  an  aggregate  sum  of  nearly  $4,000,000  which  the  people  have  voluntarily 
added  to  their  bonded  indebtedness  for  buildings  and  grounds.  In  addition,  approximate- 
ly 


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18 


ly  $200,000  more  has  been   expended   from  the  current  school  funds  for  iHiikhng;  improve- 
ments. 

When  it  came  time  to  spend  the  proceeds  of  the  big-  ISIll  bond  issue,  the  Oakdand 
Board  of  Education  did  something-,  which,  according  to  the  editor  of  the  American  School 
Board  Journal,  was  done  for  the  first  time  in  any  important  city.  A  commission  was  ap- 
pointed which  acted  without  pay,  sitting  twice  a  week  for  two  months,  and  which  included 
by  correspondence,  some  of  the  leading  experts  on  school  architecture  in  the  United  States. 

After  having  carefully  planned  a  program  of  building,  the  commission  recommended 
the  employment  of  a  supervising  architect,  who  called  to  his  assistance  several  of  the  noted 
architects  in  the  State. 

The  present  school  plant  includes  forty-seven  main  school  buildings,  besides  portables, 
shops,  etc.,  twenty  of  which  are  of  either  brick  or  concrete.  The  equipment  of  all  the 
schools  is  rapidly  being  improved  and  modernized.  Adjustable  seats  are  replacing  the  old 
types  of  furniture  that  fit  neither  the  larger  nor  the  smaller  pupils  of  a  grade,  and  as  rapid- 
ly as  possible  modern  sanitary  appliances,  and  provisions  for  fire  protection  are  being; 
added  to  the  old  buildings. 

The  city  has  provided  generously  but  not  wastefully  for  the  play  and  recreation  of 
its  children  and  for  the  future  expansion  of  its  school  buildings.  Nearly  all  of  the  down- 
town schools  have  at  least  a  city  block,  and  many  of  the  newer  schools  have  more.  The 
Lock  wood  school,  for  instance,  has  nearly  ei^^hteen  acres  in  connection  with  the  main 
buildings.  The  new  Technical  High  School  has  a  campus  of  eight  acres.  Several  of  the 
others  have  g-rpunds  nearly  as  large. 

This  year,  the  grounds  of  thirty  of  the  schools  have  been  equipped  as  regular  play- 
grounds under  the  direction  of  the  municipal  recreation  department.  This  equipment  in- 
cludes steel  playground  and  gymnasium  apparatus  and  provision  for  the  various  forms  of 
athletics  and  group  games.  The  consulting  landscape  architect  of  the  city  is  providing 
plans  for  the  ornamentation  of  these  grounds,  and  the  planting  of  trees,  shrubs  and  lawns 
is  proceeding-  as  rapidly  as  funds  will  permit. 

Ten  of  these  grounds  are  particularly  well  equipped  and  are  kept  open  after  school 
hours  on  school  days,  and  all  day  on  Saturday,  and  during  vacations.  On  each  ground  at 
all  such  times,  two  special  instructors,  one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls,  are  employed.  The 
other  twenty  grounds  are  kept  open  as  playgrounds  after  school  on  school  days,  and  each 
has  a  play  teacher  in  charge. 

One  of  the  more  recent  developments  of  the  Oakland  system  is  the  expansion  of  kin- 
dergartens. In  August,  1912,  there  were  only  seven  kindergartens ;  but  under  the  provis- 
ions of  the  new  State  law,  which  became  ettective  in  1913,  twenty-three  more  have  been 
authorized. 

In  elementary  schools  during  the  month  of  November,  there  were  enrolled  20,0G3 
pupils,  of  whom  16,654  are  included  in  the  grades  one  to  six,  inclusive.  It  is,  therefore, 
evident  that,  since  there  are  in  all  cities  many  pupils  who  do  not  enter  the  high  schools, 
and  are  therefore  deprived  of  the  cultural  and  vocational  courses  there  oft'ered.  every  ef- 
fort must  be  made  to  develop  the  opportunities  of  the  grammar  schools  as  fully  as  possi- 
ble. Accordingly  the  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  Oakland  are  selected  upon  a  merit 
system  and  are  paid  salaries  which  render  it  possible  to  employ  and  retain  excellent  teach- 
ers. 

An  unusually  large  number  are  university  graduates  who  have  specialized  along-  one 
or  more  lines,  while  the  majority  of  the  remainder  have  prepared  for  teaching  by  a  course 
of  training  in  normal  schools.  The  grammar  schools  are  not  stereotyped  reproductions  of 
each  other ;  on  the  contrary,  while  they,  have  been  standardized  to  the  extent  of  making 
the  free  transfer  of  pupils  easy,  they  are  adapted  as  far  as  possible  to  the  needs  of  the  local- 
ity in  which  they  are  placed.  Certain  general  features,  however,  common  to  the  whole  sys- 
tem are  worthy  of  special  mention. 

One  of  the  unicjue  features  of  the  Oakland  schools  is  the  flexible  promotion  system 
whereby  either  classes  or  individuals  may  be  promoted  at  any  time  during  the  year.  It 
thus  happens  that  some  children  may  advance  more  rapidly  than  others,  if  they  are  capable 
of  doing  so,  and  are  not  compelled  to  be  constantly  "marking  time"  while  the  slower  pupils 
catch  up.  In  other  words,  every  pupil  advances  at  his  own  rate  of  speed.  The  records 
show  that  many  pupils  are  able  to  make  two,  or  even  more  promotions  in  a  single  term. 

Manual  training  and  domestic  science  and  art  are  given  to  all  pupils  of  the  fifth,  sixth, 
seventh,  and  eighth  grades,  the  amount  of  time  ranging  from  two  to  ten  hours  per  week, 
The  majority  of  the  manual  training  instructors  are  also  skilled  mechanics.  Elementary 
dressmaking  is  taught  in  the  eighth  grade. 

A  great  deal  of  emphasis  is  placed  on  music  and  drawing  throughout  the  schools.    The 

19 


teaching  corps  of  each  of  these  subjects  is  organized  into  a  department  with  a  director  in 
charge,  and  the  teaching  is  carefully  supervised. 

Even  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  elementar}^  school,  these  two  subjects  have  a  slightly 
vocational  aspect.  In  drawing,  pupils  have  an  option  between  mechanical  and  freehand 
drawing,  and  in  music  they  may  elect  band  or  orchestra  in  place  of  vocal  music.  There 
are  at  present  thirty-three  school  bands  and  thirty  school  orchestras  in  the  city.  Special 
attention  is  given  to  concert  work,  and  steps  have  already  been  taken  toward  community 
service  in  the  way  of  public  concerts.  A  great  many  of  the  more  expensive  instruments 
for   these  organizations   are    furnished  by   the  Board  of  Education. 

The  health  supervision  of  the  schools  is  entrusted  to  a  director,  an  assistant  director  and 
nine  nurses.  All  of  these  have  had  careful  training  for  their  work,  and  give  their  full  time 
to  it.  In  addition,  a  number  of  public  and  private  clinics  and  hospitals  have  assisted  ma- 
terially in  caring  for  the  health  of  the  children. 

The  aim  of  the  department  is  not  so  much  the  treatment  of  the  sick  as  the  safeguard- 
ing of  the  health  of  the  strong.  Each  child  in  the  elementary  schools  is  examined  once 
each  year,  and  then  all  cases  which  seem  to  demand  attention  are  followed  up  by  the 
nurses. 

One  of  the  features  of  the  Oakland  school  department  which  has  attracted  wide-spread 
attention  is  the  psychological  clinic  or  child  study  laboratory.  Children,  whose  mental  or 
nervous  conditions  requires  special  care  are  sent  to  this  clinic  for  examination.  Helpful 
advice  as  to  care,  treatment,  and  training  at  home  and  at  school  are  given  by  the  expert  in 
charge. 

In  connection  with  the  psychological  clinic,  special  classes  are  maintained  for  back- 
ward children  and  those  needing  peculiar  individual  attention  for  nervous  or  mental  disor- 
ders. Several  ungraded  classes  are  also  maintained  for  pupils  who  for  some  reason  or 
other  are  unable  to  fit  into  the  regular  schoolroom  procedure.  Besides  this,  the  city  main- 
tains special  classes  for  immigrants  learning  English,  a  class  in  preparation  for  citizenship, 
open  air  classes  for  anemic  children,  and  a  class  for  the  deaf. 

Worthy  of  special  mention  in  connection  with  the  elementary  schools  is  a  new  type  of 
school  to  be  known  as  the  vocational  school,  which  was  opened  on  January  4.  1915,  in  the 
buildings  formerly  occupied  by  the  Technical  High  School,  Twelfth  and  Market  streets. 
This  is  to  be  a  trade  school,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  provide  preparatory  trade  and  re- 
lated academic  instruction  for  fcioys  and  girls  who  have  the  ability  and  the  desire  to  en- 
gage in  practical  wage-earning  occupations  and  to  continue  at  the  same  time  a  general  edu- 
cation, but  who  feel  that  they  can  not  afiford  the  time  for  a  four-year  high  school  course. 
It  will  shorten  the  period  of  apprenticeship  for  young  people  desiring  to  enter  trades  and 
at  the  same  time  afford  a  good  general  education. 

The  academic  training,  like  the  shop  instruction,  will  be  of  a  practical  nature,  and  will 
consist  of  courses  in  English,  history  and  civics,  shop  mathematics  and  arithmetic,  geog- 
raphy, drawing,  science  and  bookkeeping.  Courses  in  dressmaking,  millinery,  salesman- 
ship, homemaking  for  girls,  and  in  printing  and  various  branches  of  the  machinery  and 
building  trades  for  boys  will  be  offered. 

The  evening  schools  of  the  city  are  open  to  all  young  people  or  adults  of  Oakland 
who  are  desirous  of  pursuing  regular  academic  branches,  or  who  are  interested  in  some 
special  line  of  trade  or  commercial  or  cultura  work.  To  meet  these  various  needs,  regu- 
lar evening  classes  are  held  in  the  Garfield,  the  Fremont  High,  and  the  Prescott  Schools. 
In  the  Central  Evening  School,  Oakland  High  School  Building,  in  addition  to  regular 
grammar  school  work,  there  are  classes  in  English  for  foreigners,  in  commercial  subjects, 
sewing,  dressmaking,  and  millinery^  music,  drawing  and  academic  high  school  subjects. 

There  are  in  Oakland  five  departmental  grammar  schools,  in  which  a  somewhat  more 
flexible  course  is  offered  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  than  in  the  regular  elementary 
schools.  As  there  are  no  district  limits  in  Oakland,  all  pupils  in  these  grades  who  desire 
to  do  so  are  able  to  pursue  a  course  of  study  in  accordance  with  which  they  may  elect  in 
addition  to  the  prescribed  fifteen  hours,  from  ten  to  fifteen  hours  of  departmental  work  in 
drawing,  manual  training,  foreign  language,  or  English  literature.  This  system  greatly  en- 
larges the  efficiency  of  the  school,  permitting  the  pupil  who  expects  to  learn  a  trade  to 
take  work  which  will  increase  the  probabilities  of  his  success  when  he  goes  to  work  or  the 
prospective  university  student  to  begin  the  study  of  languages  early. 

Up  to  the  present,  Oakland  schools  of  this  type  have  been  styled  intermediate  or  de- 
partmental grammar  schools.  In  a  recent  announcement  issued  by  Dr.  P.  P.  Claxton. 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  specially  organized  schools  of  grades  seven  and 
eight  or  seven,  eight,  and  nine,  which  provided  for  greater  differentiation  of  studies  are 
called  "Junior  High  Schools." 

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32 


In  all  of  the  four  Oakland  High  Schools  both  a  regul^^r  'academic  course  prep.aratory 
to  the  university  and  a  general  elective  course  designed  to;  tit/in'div3dual"'i!l^*elk?  a/^  given 
The  institution  is  organized  under  the  following  departments  f  'English/  history,  foreign 
languages,  mathematics,  drawing,  science,  home  economics,  music,  commercial  branches, 
and  physical  training. 

The  Oakland  Technical  High  School,  which  in  January  moved  to  its  new  plant  at 
43d  street  and  Broadway,  has,  in  addition  to  the  foregoing,  fully  equipped  shops  for 
instruction  in  machinery  and  building  trades.  This  building  has  been  erected  at  a  cost  of 
more  than  half  a  million  dollars,  and  represents  the  most  modern  ideas  in  school  architect- 
ure, lighting  and  sanitation.  It  is  provided  with  every  convenience  for  use,  not  only  by  the 
school,  but  by  the  entire  community. 

The  public  education  of  the  present  day,  however,  has  a  broader  aspect  than  the  train- 
ing of  youth.  With  the  growth  of  the  community  spirit  and  the  special  facilities  provided 
in  the  schools  for  neighborhood  needs,  a  course  of  free  lectures  has  been  provided  for 
adults  which  was  attended  last  year  by  more  than  20,000  persons.  In  addition,  a  com- 
munity orchestra  has  been  organized  which  not  only  affords  musical  instruction  and  recrea- 
tion to  persons  who  might  otherwise  neglect  musical  training  already  commenced,  but 
which  will  in  return  render  service  to  the  public  in  the  way  of  public  entertainment. 


Berkeley  and  Alameda  Schools 

The  schools  of  Berkeley  and  Alameda  are  in  line  with  those  of  Oakland  in  progress- 
ive spirit  and  activity. 

In  Berkeley  there  are  in  the  elementary  schools  21  men  teachers  and  168  women, 
paid  annually  $241,508.86,  with  an  average  daily  attendance  of  5141.  There  are  11  kinder- 
garten teachers,  with  an  average  daily  attendance  of  313,  and  a  total  salary  roll  of 
$11,425.  The  average  daily  High  School  attendance  is  1,411,  and  there  are  25  men  teachers 
and  42  women,  with  a  total  annual  salary  of  $102,894.15,  and  graduating  105  boys  and  140 
girls  for  the  year  1914-15. 

There  are  evening  schools  for  adults  and  working  boys  and  girls  in  the  Berkeley  sys- 
tem, while  school  gardens,  dental  and  school  inspection,  a  printing  department,  a  school  sav- 
ings system,  manual  training,  music,  domestic  science,  drawing,  and  the  use  of  school  build- 
ings for  social  center  activities  are  among  the  progressive  features  in  Berkeley.  A  $500,- 
000  bond  issue  was  recently  voted  for  new  school  buildings  and  grounds. 


The  City  of  Alameda  has  always  taken  a  very  pardonable  pride  in  its  schools.  In  the 
first  place,  the  citizens  of  Alameda  are  of  a  kind  that  recognize  the  importance  of  good 
schools.  These  same  citizens  recently,  by  an  overwhelming  vote,  carried  a  bond  issue 
amounting  to  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  new  schoolhouses  and  additional  school 
property. 

There  are  over  four  thousand  children  attending  the  public  schools  in  Alameda,  about 
six  hundred  of  whom  are  registered  in  the  High  School.  Besides  this  number,  there  are 
two  hundred  children  at  present  enrolled  in  the  public  kindergartens.  The  elementary 
school  classes  average  about  thirty-one  pupils  to  the  teacher,  an  average  that  compares 
favorably  with  the  most  efficient  city  school  departments  in  the  United  States. 

The  Alameda  High  School  gives  vocational,  as  well  as  college  preparatory  courses. 
Vocational  Guidance  plays  an  important  part  in  this  school.  Part-time  courses  are  ar- 
ranged for  upper  class  students  interested  in  mechanical  lines,  and  these  same  part-time 
students  receive  a  just  wage  for  all  work  done  in  the  shops  co-ordinated  with  the  Alameda 
school  system. 


33 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  T  AC. 

STAMPED  EE^w^^  ^^TE 

AN  INITIAL  FINF  nr.  n. 


""-^^^"^^'^iHSSWi^, 


^^21-20^-5/39  (9269s) 


Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN,  21,1908 


rnM7q033gl 


3  2,7 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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